How the Snake Lost Its Legs
In the article "How the Snake Lost Its Legs," Carl Zimmer wrote about the common theory of snake evolution is about to be questioned. All vertebrates that live on land whether mammalian or reptilian are known as tetrapods. In most animals these feet evolved into other limbs, like arms for humans and into wings for birds; however, the snake lost its four feet altogether. The only sign that snakes ever had four feet is a remaining hip located within the rib cage. Paleontologists and herpetologists alike find it difficult to retrace the ancestry of snakes. Because of their scales, eggs, and subtle features of the skull, some scientists believe that snakes are descendants of lizards. However, this still does not explain how snakes lost their legs.
In 1970, a three-foot-long creature, Pachyrachis Problematicus, was discovered near Jerusalem. A Hebrew University herpetologist studied the fossil and suggested that even though the animal looked serpentine there was not enough evidence supporting the theory that it was related to snakes. In 1996, Michael Lee and Michael Caldwell studied the fossil more thoroughly. Lee stated that "The first thing that you've got to do is look at every possible animal it could be related to", he and Caldwell concluded that the Pachyrachis had many snake like characteristics.(Zimmer p.32) For example, "the body is long and sinuous: it has 140 vertebrae in its trunk; most lizards have just 25.&q...
The significance of Brown directly following the court ruling has been called a ‘Supreme Court Bomb’1, as depicted in an image published five days later in a Richmond paper. The San Francisco Chronicle felt that Brown would have an immediate and great ‘impact of anti-Segregation’, calling it ‘a social revolution’2. Judge Constance Motley called it ‘the catalyst for all the demonstrations’3 that followed. The last of these sources was from an NAACP lawyer, the other two from pro-Civil Rights publications. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that these people wished to promote the success of the ruling, perhaps leading them to exaggerate its significance. By overstating how much they thought would be changed by the court’s decision, they could have been promoting their own hopes. It remains a fact, however, that the ruling did overturn the precedent set by Plessy v. Ferguson sixty years earlier. The Supreme Court went against that ruling’s central idea, ‘separate but equal’, saying it had ‘no place’ in the American constitution, and that ‘separate educational facilities are inherently unequal’4. Willoughby and Paterson claim that Brown managed to ‘end the vice-like grip of the Plessy precedent’. ...
The Blessing and Invocation of God over Baptismal Water evokes the history of baptism. The sacred scripture of the Bible is the etymology of the prayer, as it accentuates the purpose; it illustrates the new birth and death the newly baptized are involved in. The prayer is structured in stanzas of four sections. The first section makes reference to God’s power and amplifies the faithful’s gratitude to God’s grace that is received, the second section relates to the Old Testament and portrays the power and role of water that baptised and immersed the evil to reveal the virtuous
Oliver Brown, father of Linda Brown decided that his third grade daughter should not have to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard just to get to the bus stop before she could even get to the separate Negro school for her area. He attempted to enroll her in the white public school only three blocks from their home, but her enrollment was denied due to her race. The browns believed this was a violation of their rights, and took their case to the courts. This wasn’t the first time that blacks found their constitutional rights violated. After the civil war, laws were passed to continue the separation of blacks and whites throughout the southern states, starting with the Jim Crow laws which officially segregated the whites from the black. It wasn’t until 1896 in Plessy vs. Ferguson that black people even began to see equality as an option. Nothing changed in the world until 1954 when the historical ruling of Brown vs. The Board of Education that anything changed. Until then, all stores, restaurants, schools and public places were deemed ‘separate but equal’ through the Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling in 1896. Many cases just like the Brown vs. Board of Education were taken to the Supreme Court together in a class action suite. The world changed when nine justices made the decision to deem segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
“We conclude unanimously that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” (qtd. in Irons 163). Many African-Americans waited to hear this quote from Chief Justice Earl Warren after many years of fighting for better educational opportunities by means of school desegregation. African-Americans went through much anguish before the Brown v. Board of Education trial even took place, especially in the Deep South. Little did they know that what looked like the beginning of the end was just another battle in what seemed like an endless war. Brown v. Board of Education was an important battle won during the Civil Rights Movement; however, it did have a major drawback simply because no deadline existed, an issue that author James Baldwin grasped from the moment the decision was made. The South took full advantage of this major flaw and continued to keep its segregated schools with no intention of ever integrating.
Kimbrough, David L. Taking up Serpents: Snake Handlers of Eastern Kentucky. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1995. Print.
The story Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton, starts off with Mike Bowman taking a vacation with his family on the coast of Costa Rica. As they cruise on their Land Rover, Tina, Bowman’s daughter, runs off after spotting three-toed bird tracks. Tina then encounters a big lizard that makes chirping sounds, and is attacked by it. She is later sent to the hospital, where Dr. Gutierrez is intrigued to find out about the lizard that bit her left arm. Gutierrez goes back to the beach where Tina was attacked, and finds the carcass of a brown-striped lizard. The carcass is sent to the Tropical Diseases Laboratory of Columbia University Medical Center, where it is examined and analyzed. Despite the efforts made, no one is able to identify the lizard’s species, so the carcass is later sent to the Museum of Natural History for further analysis.
...rch 17, 1954 the Supreme Court overturned the “separate but equal” that was implied by Plessy v. Ferguson. The brown decision inspired many civil rights movements and marches throughout the 1950’s and 60’s. It also opened the doors to many great civil right activist such as Rosa Parks, and MLK to continue to fight for equality for all regardless of skin color. As the years pass, desegregation continued and improved many public school systems. In our recent cases of segregation, many people would argue for another Brown case. Black students today are slowly closing the achievement gap and are receiving better employment and career options. Many would say that we as a society are still separate, and unequal. Overall, the Brown decision teaches us that the struggle for equality is never over. It teaches that as society we must continue to guard our freedoms every day.
The United States continued to assimilate and provide greater opportunities for African-Americans, on May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision regarding the case called Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in which the plaintiffs charged that the education of black children in separate public schools from their white counterparts was unconstitutional. The opinion of the Court stated that the "segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children”. This historic discission further inflamed the racest in the south, and many ...
In this paper, I will be using Victor Turner’s concept of liminality to analyze the Christian rite of passage of baptism. Turner built upon Arnold van Gennep’s three-stage model of rites of passage, focusing on liminality rather than reaggregation and introducing the concept of communitas as the unstructured community during the liminal stage in which all members are equal. By using the anthropological lens of Turner to analyze baptism, specifically Jesus’ water baptism in the book of Mark, I hope to apply his concepts of liminality and communitas to the text to gain a deeper understanding of the model for modern Christian baptism rituals and interpretations, including Spirit baptism.
...le, the scripture passage Luke 24:30-32 in the bible explores the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is recognised after “he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them” This is important to Christian followers, as it is the foundation of Christian beliefs. This has also impacted the way Christians practise traditional rituals and ceremonies, such as the Eucharist and Baptism. Also the scripture reference provides adherents with the knowledge of Jesus’ resurrection and how he will be “with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28), even after his death and resurrection. Thus, the ritual of Eucharist and Baptism supports adherents in seeking where Christ is in their everyday lives. Hence, the rituals and ceremonies, such as the Eucharist and Baptism are significant to Christianity, through it shaping it as a living and dynamic tradition
Historically, the Civil Rights Movement was a time during the 1950’s and 60’s to eliminate segregation and gain equal rights. Looking back on all the events, and dynamic figures it produced, this description is very vague. In order to fully understand the Civil Rights Movement, you have to go back to its origin. Most people believe that Rosa Parks began the whole civil rights movement. She did in fact propel the Civil Rights Movement to unprecedented heights but, its origin began in 1954 with Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was the cornerstone for change in American History as a whole. Even before our nation birthed the controversial ruling on May 17, 1954 that stated separate educational facilities were inherently unequal, there was Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896 that argued by declaring that state laws establish separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities. Some may argue that Plessy vs. Ferguson is in fact backdrop for the Civil Rights Movement, but I disagree. Plessy vs. Ferguson was ahead of it’s time so to speak. “Separate but equal” thinking remained the body of teachings in America until it was later reputed by Brown vs. Board of Education. In 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, and prompted The Montgomery Bus Boycott led by one of the most pivotal leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. After the gruesome death of Emmett Till in 1955 in which the main suspects were acquitted of beating, shooting, and throwing the fourteen year old African American boy in the Tallahatchie River, for “whistling at a white woman”, this country was well overdo for change.
The Texas horned lizard, Phrynosoma cornutum, is a species in the lizard family, Phrynosomatidae, which has ten genera and a diverse group of over 125 different species (Hammerson 2007; Cossel Jr. 1997). Lizards in this family can be found in Mexico, Panama, most areas of the United States and parts of Canada (Heying 2003). Phrynosomatids range in a variety of forms, but are most commonly distinguished by their small size (less than 10 cm long), rough and keeled scales, spikes on their bodies, and the fusion of the sides of their teeth to the sides of their inner jawbones, known as pleurodont teeth (Heying 2003). The thirteen species in the horned lizard genus, Phrynosoma, can be identified more specifically by their flattened bodies (similar to a toad), small and coarse dorsal scales, camouflaged markings, and a short head with two horns pointing towards their backs (Oklahoma 1996). Of all the Phrynosoma horned lizards, the Texas horned lizard has the largest body and is the most widely dispersed species (Wikipedia 2007).
...Like the forelimbs of turtles, horses, humans, birds, and bats, an organisms body parts are less than perfectly adapted because they are modified from an inherited structure rather than a designed from a completely “raw” materials for a specific purpose. An engineer could design better limbs in each case. Bu if it is accepted that all of these skeletons inherited their structures from a common ancestor and became modified only as they adapted to different ways of life, the similarity of their structures makes sense” (“Evolution” 3). This shows that all of these animals must have came from a close relative. There is lots of evidence supporting the theory of natural selection so that makes it the most sense and easy to believe.
This essay discusses the evolution of amphibians. Amphibians are classified into three orders (anura, caudata and apoda) and are in the superclass tetrapoda (Kolesova, et el, 2007). The Apoda is comprised of organisms with no legs, and these organisms normally live in barrows. Tretrapods are comprised of vertebrates with four limbs; and examples of tetrapods are reptiles and amphibians (Kolesova, et el, 2007). Tetrapods were the earliest vertebrates to be able to walk on land and that was during the Devonian period about 360-370 million years ago (Kolesova, et el, 2007). Before the existence of amphibians almost all vertebrates lived in water (Kolesova, et el, 2007).
The sacrament of Baptism is a rite of passage undertaken by believers in celebrating, symbolising and making present the central beliefs of the religious tradition of Christianity. It is an experiential religious act involving the transformation of the individual.